1. The time has now come to conclude the reflections and
analyses based on the words Christ spoke in the Sermon on the Mount, with which
he appealed to the human heart, exhorting it to purity: "You have heard that it
was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that everyone who
looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart"
(Mt 5:27-28). We have said several times that these words, spoken once to the
limited number of listeners to that Sermon, refer to people of all times and
places. They appeal to the human heart, in which the most interior and, in a
way, the most essential design of history is inscribed. It is the history of
good and evil (whose beginning is connected, in Genesis, with the mysterious
tree of the knowledge of good and evil). At the same time, it is the history of
salvation, whose word is the Gospel, and whose power is the Holy Spirit, given
to those who accept the Gospel with a sincere heart.

Christ's words teach

2. If Christ's appeal to the human heart and, still
earlier, his reference to the beginning, enable us to construct or at least to
outline an anthropology which we can call the theology of the body, such a
theology is, at the same time, a pedagogy. Pedagogy aims at educating man,
setting before him the requirements, motivating them, and pointing out the ways
that lead to their fulfillment. Christ's pronouncements have also this purpose:
they are pedagogical enunciations. They contain a pedagogy of the body,
expressed in a concise and at the same time extremely complete way. Both the
answer given to the Pharisees with regard to the indissolubility of marriage,
and the words of the Sermon on the Mount concerning the mastery of lust,
prove—at least indirectly— that the Creator has assigned as a task to man his
body, his masculinity and femininity; and that in masculinity and femininity he,
in a way, assigned to him as a task his humanity, the dignity of the person, and
also the clear sign of the interpersonal communion in which man fulfills himself
through the authentic gift of himself. Setting before man the requirements
conforming to the tasks entrusted to him, at the same time the Creator points
out to man, male and female, the ways that lead to assuming and discharging
them.

Self-education of man

3. Analyzing these key texts of the Bible to their very
roots, we discover that anthropology which can be called the theology of the
body. This theology of the body is the basis of the most suitable method of the
pedagogy of the body, that is, the education (the self-education) of man. This
takes on particular relevance for modern man, whose science in the field of
biophysiology and biomedicine has made great progress. However, this science
deals with man under a determined aspect and so is partial rather than global.
We know well the functions of the body as an organism, the functions connected
with the masculinity and femininity of the human person. But in itself, this
science does not yet develop the awareness of the body as a sign of the person,
as a manifestation of the spirit.

The whole development of modern science, regarding the
body as an organism, has rather the character of biological knowledge. This is
because it is based on the separation of that which is corporeal in man from
that which is spiritual. Using such a one-sided knowledge of the functions of
the body as an organism, it is not difficult to arrive at treating the body, in
a more or less systematic way, as an object of manipulations. In this case man
ceases to identify himself subjectively with his own body, because it is
deprived of the meaning and the dignity deriving from the fact that this body is
proper to the person. We here touch upon problems often demanding fundamental
solutions, which are impossible without an integral view of man.

Need of adequate spiritual maturity

4. Precisely here it appears clear that the theology of
the body, which we derive from those key texts of Christ's words, becomes the
fundamental method of pedagogy, that is, of man's education from the point of
view of the body, in full consideration of his masculinity and femininity. That
pedagogy can be understood under the aspect of a specific "spirituality of the
body." In its masculinity or femininity the body is given as a task to the human
spirit (this was expressed in a stupendous way by St. Paul in his own
characteristic language). By means of an adequate maturity of the spirit it too
becomes a sign of the person, which the person is conscious of, and authentic
"matter" in the communion of persons. In other words, through his spiritual
maturity, man discovers the nuptial meaning proper to the body.

Christ's words in the Sermon on the Mount indicate that
lust in itself does not reveal that meaning to man, but on the contrary dims and
obscures it. Purely biological knowledge of the functions of the body as an
organism, connected with the masculinity and femininity of the human person, is
capable of helping to discover the true nuptial meaning of the body only if it
is accompanied by an adequate spiritual maturity of the human person. Otherwise,
such knowledge can have quite the opposite effect. This is confirmed by many
experiences of our time.

5. From this point of view it is necessary to consider
prudently the pronouncements of the modern Church. Their adequate understanding
and interpretation, as well as their practical application (that is, pedagogy)
demand that deep theology of the body which we derive mainly from the key words
of Christ. As for the pronouncements of the Church in modern times, it is
necessary to study the chapter entitled, "The Dignity of Marriage and the
Family," of Pastoral Constitution of the Second Vatican Council (Gaudium et Spes,
part II, chap. 1) and, subsequently, Paul VI's Encyclical Humanae Vitae. Without
any doubt, the words of Christ, which we have analyzed at great length, had no
other purpose than to emphasize the dignity of marriage and the family. Hence
there is a fundamental convergence between them and the content of both the
above-mentioned statements of the modern Church. Christ was speaking to the man
of all times and places. The pronouncements of the Church aim at applying
Christ's words to the here and now. Therefore they must be reread according to
the key of that theology and that pedagogy which find roots and support in
Christ's words.

It is difficult here to make a total analysis of the cited
pronouncements of the supreme Magisterium of the Church. We will confine
ourselves to quoting some passages. Here is how the Second Vatican
Council—placing among the most urgent problems of the Church in the modern world
the dignity of marriage and the family—characterizes the situation that exists
in this area: "The happy picture of the dignity of these partnerships (that is,
marriage and the family) is not reflected everywhere, but is overshadowed by
polygamy, the plague of divorce, so-called free love and similar blemishes;
furthermore, married love is too often dishonoured by selfishness, hedonism, and
unlawful contraceptive practices (Gaudium et Spes 47). Paul VI, setting forth
this last problem in the encyclical Humanae Vitae, writes, among other things:
"Another thing that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to
the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and,
disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere
instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as
his partner whom he should surround with care and affection" (Humanae Vitae 17).

Are we not here in the sphere of the same concern which
once dictated Christ's words on the unity and indissolubility of marriage, as
well as those of the Sermon on the Mount, concerning purity of heart and mastery
of the lust of the flesh, words that were later developed with so much acuteness
by the Apostle Paul?

Demands of Christian moralilty

6. In the same spirit, speaking of the demands of
Christian morality, the author of Humanae Vitae presents at the same time the
possibility of fulfilling them when he writes: "The mastery of instinct by one's
reason and free will undoubtedly demands an asceticism"—Paul VI uses this
term—so that the affective manifestations of conjugal life may be in keeping
with right order, in particular with regard to the observance of periodic
continence. Yet this discipline which is proper to the purity of married
couples, far from harming conjugal love, rather confers on it a higher human
value. It demands a continual effort [this effort was called above asceticism],
yet, thanks to its beneficent influence, husband and wife fully develop their
personalities, [and] enrich each other with spiritual values.... It favors
attention for one's partner, helps both parties to drive out selfishness, the
enemy of true love, and deepens their sense of responsibility..." (Humane Vitae
21).

Need of Magisterial pronouncements

7. Let us pause on these few passages. They—particularly
the last one—clearly show how indispensable, for an adequate understanding of
the pronouncements of the Magisterium of the modern Church, is the theology of
the body, whose foundations we sought especially in the words of Christ himself.
It is precisely that theology—as we have already said—that becomes the
fundamental method of the whole Christian pedagogy of the body. Referring to the
words quoted, it can be affirmed that the purpose of the pedagogy of the body
lies in ensuring that the "affective manifestations"—particularly those "proper
to conjugal life"— be in conformity with the moral order, or, in a word, with
the dignity of the person. In these words the problem returns of the mutual
relationship between eros and ethos, which we have already dealt with. Theology,
understood as a method of the pedagogy of the body, prepares us also for further
reflections on the sacramentality of human life and especially married life.

The Gospel of purity of heart, yesterday and, today:
concluding with this phrase this cycle of our considerations—before going on to
the next one, in which the basis of analyses will be Christ's words on the
resurrection of the body—we still wish to devote some attention to "the need of
creating an atmosphere favorable to education in chastity," with which Paul VI's
encyclical deals (cf. Humanae Vitae 22), and we wish to focus these observations
on the problem of the ethos of the body in works of artistic culture, referring
especially to the situations we encounter in modern life.